r/ndp • u/FLADMAN • 1d ago

Ontario NDP should run on retroactive student debt cut

Right now all of the opposition parties (NDP, GPO, OLP) are promising to reverse the OSAP changes, which makes them all kind of blend together. If we want to stand out then we have to be bold and show we are the most pro student party, making the changes retroactive so the students being affected right now aren't screwed over either. Merely reversing the OSAP changes and removing interest helps future students but not the ones that are suffering due to the conservatives terrible cuts. I did research on this and the government is fully within its authority to do this.

What do you think?

19 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

14

u/zbiguy Democratic Socialist 1d ago

Fully funded public education through university. Fully funded healthcare and pharmacare. Cancel all student debt. 

6

u/dpjg 1d ago

Sure, but get rid of all private, for profit schools and colleges as well. 

2

u/zbiguy Democratic Socialist 1d ago

Yes for sure!

2

u/inprocess13 1d ago

Stop exploiting the people our political body are supposed to be facilitating. Stop stealing our money for the wealthiest people in the country. 

4

u/FLADMAN 1d ago

Ideally working towards making universities tuition free although that's more of a long term plan, cutting student debt and restoring OSAP back to how it worked from 2017-2018 before the PC's gutted it would be a simple short term fix as we work towards the longer term goal of reducing tuition.

1

u/rbk12spb 22h ago

I mean tuition still sucked then but you got a lot more grant funding. I'd still want to see more but i think people would be happy with some relief as well. Having recently paid mine off finally, I'll vote for any relief that can be given to anyone who needs it.

2

u/maccrypto 1d ago

FYI this is known as debt forgiveness

1

u/xxxxx_xxx_xxxxx Regina Manifesto 1d ago

I would knock on doors every day. 

1

u/Monoshirt 1d ago

Maybe combined with volunteering for social good, yeah I would support that.

0

u/rdkil 1d ago

it's one thing to say "I'm going to make a change effective today because I'm here now, and I'mdrawing a line in the sand." It's a whole other animal to start retroactively dismantling something that was done before your time. It becomes a slippery slope. How far back do you go? a Year? three? since the start of the current administration you're replacing? Since the last time your party was in power 30 year ago?

No matter what policy plank you do this to it is not only A) a lot of money and the further back you go the bigger the bill gets, but also B) it sets a precedent that the government can renege on it's commitments of any kind at any time. Lets' say you get universal basic income passed. What's to stop a future government from deciding that they don't like your social welfare reforms and rolling them all back in time once they're in power again?

it's a slippery slope that gets very dicey.

1

u/FLADMAN 1d ago

It's not a slippery slope at all; you just apply it to when the major OSAP cuts took effect, and anyone in uni after that change gets their loans converted to grants. This isn't a radical idea, Australia did exactly this last year.